new social marketing pr · 2017. 6. 19. · marketing.” those reviews are done in person. what...
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Social * Marketing * PR
June 19, 2017Issue 24
prnewsonline.com
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CONTENTSSocial Media ...................1,3Video ..........................1,4,5Data Dive ..........................2Events Calendar .................2Case Study ..................5,6,7The Week in PR ..................8
Continued on page 4
VIDEOContinued on page 3
SOCIAL MEDIA
The Bell System: How Taco Bell Assesses a Social Situation Before It Responds
Taco Bell is mentioned constantly on social. In part II of our interview with Matt Prince, the brand’s PR & brand engage-ment manager, we ask how Taco Bell deals with potential issues and get the brand’s take on measurement.
Listen for the Lifespan: For Prince and Taco Bell, social listening is a full-time occupation. During a potential crisis, it’s even more so. “One of the best things you can do in a potential crisis situation is to understand the lifespan of a
Is there a need to repeat the axiom that it’s not if your brand will experience a PR crisis, but when? (OK, we repeated it.) Seriously, take your pick of recent PR crises: Chipotle, Volk-swagen, United Airlines, Kathy Griffin/CNN, Uber Technolo-gies and Steve Harvey (see page 8). We realize there’s no magic formula to react to the rise of negative conversations on social about your brand. Each situation is unique.
With thousands of restaurants throughout the country,
One of the greatest struggles about making a video is writing the script. You nail down a topic you’re happy with, but what do you want the video to say?
Maybe you check the internet to see if your idea for a video on this topic has been done before. In most cases, oth-ers have produced videos or written about your topic. Don’t let this deter you from making a video. The internet is an expansive space; there’s enough room for your video.
Once I’ve chosen a topic for a video and it has been ap-proved, I begin to brainstorm about how to structure the script. This is where I ask myself, “What am I adding to the conversation?” Unfortunately, this is a question many con-
tent creators overlook. Knowing what you’re adding to a broader conversation on your topic helps you to focus the video, establish your brand and get your produc-tion done quicker. In addition it will be a large factor determining the amount of clicks and engagement a video will generate.
If you don’t ask yourself what you’re adding to the conver-sation, your video has the potential to suffer. It can become trite, irrelevant or completely uninteresting. Here are several ways to ensure you add to a conversation.
A Five-Step Plan for Scripting a Video That Will Earn Views for Your Brand
BY ELAINE SEWARD, SENIOR VIDEO PRODUCER, SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR, AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
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Social * Marketing * PR
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UPCOMING EVENTS AND WEBINARS
DATA DIVE
Consumer Engagement With B2C Video Posts on Twitter Jumps 500% in Q4’16
prnewsonline.com • 6.19.17
As we said in these pages last week, Twitter has become more than a text-heavy platform for poli-cy wonks and news nerds. In addition, we noted consumer engagement with video on Twitter is rising significantly. We have additional evidence this week, per Shareablee data provided exclu-sively to PR News. As you can see in this rank-ing of consumer engagement with B2C brands on Twitter for Q4 2016 (Oct. 1-Dec. 31), nearly all the brands are in the video game space. It’s a seasonal occurrence, though, as the data is from the holiday shopping period.
Overall, consumer engagement (likes,
retweets, comments) with B2C brands’ Twitter posts in the period rose 11% year over year. For B2C brands’ video posts on Twitter, though, con-sumer engagement jumped a whopping 500%, says Shareablee’s Nathalie Nuta.
In the list, Rockstar Games nipped Pokemon. Consumer engagement with Rockstar’s tweets was up nearly 400% year over year, Nuta says, with video 12% of engagement. Its top tweet, from October 2016, featured an image of Red Dead Redemption 2, a game to be released this fall. It was re-tweeted more than 149K times and captured better than 363K actions.
DIGITAL & VISUAL STORYTELLING
BOOT CAMPSJUNE 22-23, 2017
CHICAGO, IL
WEBINAR: HOW TO ELEVATE YOUR INFLU-ENCER MARKETING STRATEGY TO FIND AND ENGAGE NEW
AUDIENCESJUNE 29, 20171:30-3PM ET
FACEBOOK BOOT CAMP JULY 20, 2017NEW YORK CITY
RANK BRANDTOTAL
ACTIONSTOTAL
CONTENTACTIONS PER
CONTENTTOTAL
AUDIENCE
1 Rockstar Games 1,554,106 185 8,401 7,868,469
2 Pokémon 1,553,342 211 7,362 2,524,395
3 PlayStation 1,069,096 670 1,596 12,809,278
4 Xbox 905,133 421 2,150 10,950,914
5 Nintendo 894,805 206 4,344 5,548,452
6 Victoria's Secret 793,997 274 2,898 10,389,609
7 Netflix 574,454 245 2,345 2,522,725
8 Starbucks 450,364 93 4,843 11,809,486
9 Whataburger 431,873 120 3,599 869,939
10 Naughty Dog, Inc. 404,466 87 4,649 1,326,653
TOP B2C BRANDS ON TWITTER – Q4 2016
Source:Based on Total Actions (likes and retweets)Data provided exclusively to PR News by Shareablee.
SOCIAL SCORECARD
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Continued from page 1
conversation,” he says. “Many times the knee-jerk reaction of a brand is to react when it hears or sees something and put out a statement. And sometimes that’s the proper thing to do. Other times it’s best to sit back and do due diligence and say to yourself: ‘Is this conversation rising? If so, we need to be prepared with a statement and action to follow. Is the conversation declining or remaining steady? If so, prob-ably the worst thing we can do is come out with a statement. That will just exacerbate the issue.’”
Matt PrinceManager, PR and Brand
EngagementTaco Bell
An Isolated Situation? “We have 7,000 res-taurants across the country, so things happen on the local level all the time,” Prince says. “The critical question: Is it an isolated event in one market? If we rush out a statement it likely could elevate it to a national level and make the issue broader, without giving us time to solve the issue and gather background infor-mation. So sometimes it’s best to wait, not to the point where you seem incompetent, not [making journalists] wait on their inquiries.”
How Long to Wait: Waiting, Prince says, means conducting social listening “before journalist inquiries arrive. Waiting until you have solid information…on some-thing before you put out a statement.” He notes, “With social especially, it can be one person saying something or some-one with many followers…we follow [the social conversation] very, very closely, by the minute.”
Taco Bell works primarily with NetBase for social listening, he says, adding, “a lot of what we’ve created [with NetBase] is proprietary to our team to really leverage the tool the way that we use it.” The brand also uses “the native analytics tools on the social platforms. They always will be one of the best places to see what’s going on.”
HOW TACO BELL MEASURESWith the amount of social activity surrounding Taco Bell, we asked Prince about how the brand measures, which KPIs are valued and how his team reports metrics to the C-suite. “We email out numbers to folks in a campaign and that will typi-cally ladder all the way up to the CEO of the company,” he
says. “We also do quarterly business reviews where we go deeper into…what did well, why, what didn’t do well and why. Then we go into deeper trends of social, communications or marketing.” Those reviews are done in person.
What Metrics Are Important? “We are really careful about what numbers we share and why they are important. We don’t say, ‘Hey, this campaign has 1 billion impressions and that’s why it’s successful.’ That’s not the case. We use measurement for benchmarks…to gauge our campaigns against previous or future efforts.”
Prince says Taco Bell “never goes into a campaign or strategy saying, ‘We need X amount of engagement to be successful.’” Instead, impressions and engagement “are a byproduct of…the larger goal…our leadership is very clear that just getting a certain number of retweets isn’t going to drive the business. It’s going to help assist the campaign.”
Note: More from Prince at PR News’ Big 4 Social Media Con-ference, Aug. 9-10, San Francisco. Info: http://bit.ly/2pZcFct
CONTACT: @matt_prince
How Taco Bell Listens Socially to Assess Crisis
Listen Here: A look inside Taco Bell’s listening hub, known as the Fish Bowl. The brand
keeps up-to-the-minute tabs on social conversations, says Matt Prince, manager, PR and
Brand Engagement. Source: Taco Bell
Continued from page 1
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u Pick a unique angle. Fidget toys seem to be the new gad-gets of the moment. It would make sense to want to make a video about them to catch the news wave. But there are articles and videos about them everywhere: What they are, how to get them, which schools are banning them and, of course, their popularity. These topics are covered heavily. I know so much about fidget toys just by scrolling through my Facebook feed that I’ve stopped caring. What is it about your fidget toys video that’s going to make it stand out?
u Ask questions no one else is. Continuing with our fidget toys example, begin to think deeper. What is the physics behind how fidget toys work? What is the psychology be-hind the seeming addiction to them? Do they help create a chemical balance in the brains of people with ADHD so they can concentrate better? These questions are adding to the conversation by going underneath the surface of the fidget toy frenzy and getting to the root of it. In addi-tion, they start fresh discussions. Pick the angle that fits your brand and work on your script. Avoid forcing a con-nection, though. As a communicator you know authenticity is critical. Creating a video about fidget toys when their connection to your brand is tenuous would be a mistake.
u Get personal in a way people can relate to by creating a
narrative. Now make your video relatable. Talk to some-one who uses fidget toys. Interview a bunch of people who use fidget toys. Use one yourself. Discuss experiences as they relate to others and create a narrative that will be engaging. For example, in the U.S., high school is a univer-sal experience. Get up close with a few people who have ADHD. Do the same for people without ADHD yet still use fidget toys. Talk to high schoolers, college students and working professionals. Ask them about their experience in high school and challenges they faced. Ask high schoolers if fidget toys help them concentrate or deter them. Ask the same of college students. Then ask working professionals if they think the toy would have helped them in high school or deterred them. This could make for an interesting video that people may be more prone to engage with. Personal stories that are universally relatable add to conversations because they make people insert themselves into the topic. Is there anything people like to do more than think about themselves?
u Do it your way: Last, add your voice to the video. This might seem like a cop-out, but YouTube celebrities rarely become rich by having bad personalities. Whereas every-one has the idea to make a video about fidget toys, you are the only one who’s going to make your video with your voice in it. One of the things people love about videos is that they can be a different experience than reading a Wikipedia page. You, the video maker, get to insert vocal inflection and personality into your creation. A caveat: If
you’re relying on your voice to add to the conversation, be sure it’s a good voice and a unique one. There are millions of hilarious people. What makes you funnier, or what fresh sense of humor are you bringing to the video? It’s the same with cynicism. What’s your critical take on fidget spinners that no one else is talking about? Add-ing to the conversation works best when you pair asking new questions or getting personal with your voice. Add-ing your personality to a new angle will create a good video and increase clicks and engagement.
u Think about visuals before scripting: The old joke is that there are two schools of thought: those who think ev-erything can be a video, and those of us who disagree. Some topics by nature are less visual than others. Other times a topic may have boring visuals or the available visuals make for unpleasant viewing. Should you think about visuals during scripting? Definitely, although the time to think about visuals is even earlier than that. When deciding on possible videos, I ask, “Does this topic lend itself to being expressed visually?” Perhaps a better question to ask is, “Can this topic be expressed visually given the manpower, bandwidth, schedule, equip-ment and budget I have?” For example, some topics might be too complicated to make into a video. Anima-tion and motion graphics are time consuming. The more visually complex and involved your topic, the longer it’s going to take to create a video. Designing and animating shots can take months to produce, and that’s with teams of people working on them. Even assuming infinite bud-gets, schedules and technology, some topics will pose
Ask Questions to Bring Your Voice to Videos
prnewsonline.com • 6.19.17
Video Example: How Does Adderall Work?
ACS released a video about how Adderall works in mid-May, timed to coincide with college
finals and students are eager to learn how to enhance their focus. The angle was how Ad-
derall works, instead of limiting content to what Adderall does. A personal touch in this video
was input from a subject diagnosed with ADHD who was prescribed Adderall. The video has
been widely successful and two years later still gains thousands of views per week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeJRBsghMt8
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problems. As a science communicator I have come up against technical topics that are so new the reference materials that could guide us in developing visuals to represent these technologies don’t yet exist. In those cases I’ve decided to forego a video, lest my less-than-accurate graphics warrant a charge of fake news.
Before Shooting: After your script is done, take a step back and look at it. Does the information you’re offering add significantly to the conversation? Think about what a viewer will gain from your video. If it’s little more than a Wikipedia article, you probably need to do more work.
For the Tight Budget: One of the best things about figur-ing out what you’re adding to the conversation with your video is that it can be done on a tight budget. Having conversations about ideas or talking to people is very cheap when it comes to making a video. In addition, once you have a direction for your video, you can nail down a schedule to make sure your video can get done quickly, which will save on costs.
CONTACT: [email protected]
It is said that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. That may be true for people, but as communi-cators we know brands are making impressions constantly with their messaging and services. Even iconic brands make course corrections aiming to gain a second first impression.
After launching in 2001, National Geographic Channel had become a revered brand in the crowded (and growing) entertainment landscape. Yet about 18 months ago the net-work decided it wanted to move from reverence to increased relevance. If you studied our slate of programming as re-
cently as three years ago, you’d see we largely were chasing the audiences of our competitors. We hadn’t forged our own path. When you’re chasing someone you’ll never be the best. And if your programming is mediocre, you’ll never break through.
Instead it was the vision of our then-new CEO Courteney Monroe to have the Channel provide what people had come to expect from the National Geographic brand: Quality, dis-tinctiveness and smart content that’s also entertaining.
CASE STUDY
How a 17-Year-Old Brand Changed Public Perception in 12 Packed Days
BY CHRIS ALBERT, EVP, GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS/TALENT RELATIONS, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NETWORKS
Continued on page 6
Video Example: How to Make Your Smartphone Battery Last Longer
There is a plethora of content about Apple’s iPhones. Still, buzz heats up just before the brand
debuts another model. A video about how to make your phone battery last longer was timed
to hit just before a new iPhone was released. This angle is relatable to everyone with a smart-
phone. The video added to the conversation about a hot topic (a new iPhone), yet battery life
was a niche not talked about much. In addition the video includes a Pokemon Go reference,
since at the time the game was blazing hot on phones and reportedly was a drain on batteries.
A unique voice was added by explaining the chemistry behind the battery hacks, instead of
just simply listing them. This video continues to pick up views regularly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUlbHMDCosI
6 prnewsonline.com • 6.19.17
The Ages of Man: Geoffrey Rush (left) and Johnny Flynn, who play old and young Albert
Einstein, respectively, in Genius, meet the press at a junket. Source: National Geographic
Continued from page 5
Harkening back to the opening lines of this case study, it would be incorrect to say that the Channel had not made a first impression on viewers, media and advertisers. As com-municators our job now was to replace that impression.
We knew communicating our commitment to premium programming was going to be difficult. Our plan, which will we’ll detail below, consisted of launching the idea with sev-eral speeches and interviews by our CEO during high-profile events. Interspersed with those speeches we planned to raise awareness with the media and our advertising partners. Last, after laying the groundwork, we’d shout the message during a whirlwind where we would execute some 30 events, premieres and screenings during just 12 days in April 2017.
HURDLES: HURRY UP AND WAITSome of the issues we faced were unique to television; oth-ers will be relatable to communicators in many industries. First, television, like an ocean liner, is unable to execute a quick turn. The reason is that it takes time to produce content. One of our series—One Strange Rock, from Darren Aronofsky—will be in production for more than 100 weeks. So while we communicators could talk immediately about the brand’s premium programming, we didn’t always have ex-amples of it to provide to reporters. The dilemma also could be seen on TV. At the outset, viewers could find only a small sampling of our premium content on the TVs.
Another hurdle was alluded to above: The market for peo-ples’ time is crowded with not only myriad TV networks, but film, theater, music, sports, books, etc. And then there’s so-cial media. How would we break through the crowded cultural landscape to clearly communicate our intention of being the premium network for science, adventure and exploration?
Last, changing your strategy is never easy. As our CEO told Variety in late April, “There’s no question that this is a bold, audacious strategy, and it’s not without risk…but the risk of not pursuing that for our business, in my estimation, was far greater than the risk of pursuing it.”
TACTICSConsistency: As noted above, our initial communications had our CEO explaining our new strategy to press, advertis-ers and other stakeholders. In every speech, interview and appearance, her messaging was similar: Premium program-ming with A-list talent from around the world.
Last fall 2016 marked the turning point for the network. We announced our largest rebrand in history at the top of One World Observatory in NY with more than two-dozen key media attending. The location was intentional – we wanted to find the highest point in the media capitol of the world to announce the idea of our new mantra: Further. The idea of Further, which was more than a tagline, aligned with our new premium program-ming strategy, embodying the pursuit of creative excellence.
Timed to the announcement of the rebrand was the pre-miere of our new series MARS, the first manifestation of the new programming strategy. And we pulled out all the PR punches. We hosted a MARS Big Thinkers champagne
brunch with 40+ press in attendance on the day of our pre-miere. That evening, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, the full cast and big thinkers attended the premiere screening and party. Howard and Grazer completed a global press junket in NYC (following a large-scale premiere a few weeks earlier in Lon-don). National Geographic took it even further, hosting a Field Trip to Mars for The Cinema School, the nation’s first film high school, where students screened the first episode and later visited the experiential dome for private tours.
Visual Stimuli: As mentioned above, we sometimes lacked examples of premium programming to provide to jour-nalists and reviewers. We decided we could raise awareness in other ways. Early in our journey to premium programming we distributed brainy-themed gifts to reporters. For example, to raise awareness for Genius, the 10-part, scripted series (our first) about Albert Einstein that premiered in April, we sent reviewers copies of Walter Isaacson’s award-winning book about the physicist. Along with that came personalized Genius-emblazoned items. There were also a bevy of items, with the word Further and the yellow frame, which is part of the National Geographic brand logo.
Further Front: Each spring most TV networks participate in what is called the Upfronts, where they tout upcoming pro-gramming to sell advertising in advance. We used several tactics to make certain our Upfront was not just another event, but one that would shout our premium programming message. More than that, we attempted to make sure the 300 attendees, including media, knew the full extent of the National Geographic brand at the Upfront. For this reason, we approached it not as a Channel event, but as a brand event.
Every element relating to the April upfront was planned and detailed, from the invitation featuring the names of tal-ent that would attend to the virtual reality exhibit and the beer-tasting booth, manned by the author of a forthcoming National Geographic book about beers of the world.
To further distinguish it, we called it our Further Front, not our Upfront. We held it in prestigious Jazz at Lincoln Center in NY and the head of our company, James Murdoch, was on
7prnewsonline.com • 6.19.17
The Framers: With the yellow National Geographic frame behind them, Katie Couric and
Morgan Freeman pose during the Channel’s Further Front in NYC in April. Source: Nat Geo
hand to deliver opening remarks. We felt Mr. Murdoch’s pres-ence signaled this was not your usual Upfront event.
Featured during the festivities were Howard and Grazer, who executive produced Genius. Also on hand were actors Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson and Johnny Flynn (all from Ge-nius), Morgan Freeman and journalist Katie Couric, both are featured in our shows. But what set apart the event was that we did more than spotlight celebrities. Also on hand was Paul Nicklen, an explorer just back from Antarctica, three emerg-ing explorers who shared their most recent adventures, four astronauts, and icons of exploration, including Sylvia Earle and Bob Ballard, known for discovering underwater treasures such as the Titanic. There was even a live conversation via Skype with a National Geographic photographer/climber on Mount Everest. We felt this was a cross-section of talent from acting, exploration and science that was hard to match.
The after-party also emphasized the unique aspects of our brand. We had a slew of National Geographic explorers mingling with guests. We also had National Geographic pho-tographers taking portraits of attendees.
Premieres: We held a series of premieres for four of our documentary films as well as scripted TV series Genius at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in NY, from April 21-26. In addition to the announced panelists after the films, one was a surprise: Hillary Clinton.
Genius: This fully scripted series, our first, about Ein-stein’s life was, at the time, the largest foray into premium programming for us. As such, for the Hollywood premiere in late April we again wanted to make a big impression, particu-larly on the filmmaking community. The messages: We had arrived with this series, we are here for the long haul and we are hiring A-list talent for our premium programming. As a result, we staged the Genius premiere in a venue normally used for large, movie premieres. As soon as VIPs emerged from their cars and limousines instead of seeing a red carpet there was our signature, 60-foot yellow carpet. We also did a full day of interviews with TV, print and digital reporters, offering cast members, including Rush, who plays the elder Einstein. Again, we were trying to shout our message.
RESULTSOwing to extensive marketing and PR campaigns behind Ge-nius, Biz Bash named National Geographic one of its Top 10 Innovative Brands (2017). Globally, Genius is averaging nearly 3.5 MM viewers per episode, hitting record numbers in most key markets. National Geographic magazine’s Genius cover story is projected to sell 100K issues; that’s above average and the third best-selling cover for FY2017 to date.
LESSONS LEARNEDI believe you learn something, no matter the event or cam-paign. Below is what I took away from our experience.
Handling Live Elements: These lessons might not be ones I didn’t already know, but they bear repeating. Lesson 1.0 is that it’s extremely risky doing something involving a live element, such as the Skype from Mount Everest during our Further Front in April. The problem is you can’t check it ahead of time, really, so it can be incredibly nerve-wracking.
Lesson 1.1 follows from the above: When you’re doing a live element, have a backup. Ours was a taped message from Everest. That’s not as good as going live, obviously. No-body knows this, but we lost audio on the Skype about 60 seconds before we were supposed to go live. We got it back about 15 seconds beforehand.
Lesson 1.2 is the importance of remaining calm. Every-one did, thank goodness, and fixed the Skype audio. That’s something I took away from this event: Remain calm, work hard as a team to solve problems and you’ll always achieve success in the end. I’m incredibly fortunate to have a large, dedicated team that put its heart and soul into this effort in April to make it as successful as it was.
It’s Not Easy Changing Perception: Again, this is a les-son I’m sure we knew. We heard countless times: “National Geographic has five premieres at Tribeca?” Normally a film producer such as The Weinstein Company has five premieres there. We had to shake off the skepticism of comments like that and stick to our plan. On the other hand, just the pres-ence we had at events like Tribeca got people to notice our efforts. It was part of everything we did in April to change perception of our brand.
Be Relatable: Our strategy to showcase exploration and innovation, along with adventure, science, photography and all of the areas we care deeply about, is simple – it is about the PEOPLE. Behind every innovation, exploration, photo-graph is a storyteller. They are our inspiration in everything we do. By showcasing the people behind the stories, we are forging a bond with consumers and clients that is key to all the PR campaigns and events we produce.
Size vs Quality: Not all events or PR campaigns need to be large. For example, in April, we completed a nationwide tour of our documentary LA92, timed to the 25th anniversary of the L.A. riots. Several were screenings of fewer than 200 people. But they were the right 200 people. They garnered social media support and led into our broadcast premiere.
CONTACT: [email protected]
8 prnewsonline.com • 6.19.17
THE WEEK IN PR
1. Harvey’s Wallbanger: Committing a PR blunder is becoming a monthly occurrence for comedian/radio and TV personality Steve Harvey. The popular entertainer was caught in the thicket last week when he told a caller to his radio show from Flint, MI, June 14 that the caller should “enjoy your nice, brown glass of water.” Prior to Har-vey’s comment the caller was blast-ing Cleveland after its NBA team, the Cavaliers, had lost in the finals of the NBA championship. Harvey is a fan of the Cavaliers. Sad irony: Michigan’s at-torney general announced involuntary manslaughter charges for five officials in connection with the Flint water fi-asco hours after Harvey’s morning ra-dio show. You might recall Harvey’s PR peccadillo last month, when an inter-nal memo he wrote to staffers of his eponymous TV show leaked. (Obvious PR lesson: There ain’t no such animal as an internal memo.) In the memo Harvey ordered staff to stay clear of him in the hallways and his dressing room: ”No stopping by or popping in…IF YOU OPEN MY DOOR EXPECT TO BE REMOVED,” the tone-deaf missive said in all caps. “I promise you I will not entertain you in the hallway, and do not attempt to walk with me,” he wrote. Harvey defended the memo, but later told Entertainment Tonight, “I probably should’ve handled it a little bit differ-ently.” When the story hit, PR pros urged two sets of eyes check memos before they’re issued. Good point, al-though during this latest miscue Har-vey’s radio cohosts could sense the Flint caller was irking him. They urged Harvey to back off. He refused.
2. Ubermenschen: There’s little need to go into great detail regarding the chain of events surrounding Uber’s week, since nearly all of it went according to a plan that was clear weeks ago. To quickly re-cap: CEO Travis Kalanick likely was go-ing to exit temporarily; his right-hand/SVP, business Emil Michael was to be fired; Asia business chief Eric Alexander proba-bly already was ousted in connection with a 2014 incident in India, where an Uber driver was accused (and later convicted) of raping a female passenger; and the re-sults of Eric Holder’s report into sexual discrimination at the company were go-ing to be released last week (PRN, June 12). All that happened. Last week, Uber’s board adopted Holder’s recommenda-tions unanimously, including: prohibiting activities involving alcohol consumption during “core work hours”; a reduction in company spending on alcohol for after-hours activities; a ban on taking non-pre-scription controlled substances at work; and an end to romantic liaisons between
employees in a re-porting relationship. Those recommenda-tions seem to say a lot about Uber’s for-mer culture and raise questions about its board’s effective-ness. They also received plenty of media ink. More so-bering (pun intended)
recommendations, such as mandatory leadership training for execs, increases in diversity and board oversight, were rel-egated to sidebars as news of Kalanick’s leave and another unfortunate item domi-nated. During an all-hands briefing June 13 about the 13-page report, Uber direc-tor Ariana Huffington announced the ad-dition of a second female board member, Wan Ling Martello, a Nestle EVP. That’s when the forward momentum crashed momentarily as board member David Bonderman joked that adding a second woman would increase the amount of “talking” at meetings. Bonderman later apologized and resigned, a good move. The lesson for communicators: Some-thing always goes wrong. When it does, a quick response can be a good move.
3. News Bits: In a June 15 post, Facebook says it wants to be “a hos-tile place for terrorism.” The post de-tails how it’s using AI, human intelli-gence and partnerships to detect and remove terrorist posts, aiming its most “cutting-edge” techniques at “ISIS, Al Qaeda and their affiliates.” Sad irony that early media reports about James Hodgkinson, the alleged shooter of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and oth-ers at a VA softball field June 1.4, fo-cused on his Facebook page that was filled with invective aimed at Repub-licans and President Donald Trump. – Fox News Channel dropped its Fair and Balanced tagline in favor of Most Watched, Most Trusted. FAB was too closely associated with the late Roger Ailes, Fox says, insisting the change was a marketing decision as opposed to an editorial one. – Instagram said June 14 it’s offering a tool for influenc-ers to indicate their posts are spon-sored. The tool adds a line under the influencer’s name indicating the post is sponsored.
4. People: The lawyer who was inter-im CEO at United Airlines when Oscar Munoz suffered a heart attack in Oct. ’15, Brett Hart, now will oversee com-munications. He’ll report to Munoz. SVP communications Jim Olson now will report to Hart. He’d been reporting to HR. Hart’s new title: EVP/chief ad-ministrative officer/general counsel. – Props to influencer Jamie Oliver, who’s offering free meals via Instagram at his restaurants to victims of the Gren-fell Tower fire in London.
Steve Harvey, Entertainer
Travis Kalanick, CEO, Uber Technologies
Brett Hart, EVP/COO/General Counsel, United Airlines